Breathable clothing, cool water, and shaded rest: unions urge revamping heat protocols

BarcelonaIt's midday and temperatures in Barcelona exceed 30 degrees Celsius. Marcos (a false name to ensure his anonymity) works for a construction company, also during the hottest hours of the day. Today he drives a cement mixer whose air conditioning has been broken for a week. "It's very stressful. They give you water, but it depends on which floor you're assigned to," he says, showing the already warmed-up bottle he keeps for drinking in the vehicle's cabin. His uniform, made of thick clothing, doesn't make things any easier either: "It's the worst possible material for these temperatures."

This Tuesday, during the heat wave, unions once again reiterated the obligation for companies to implement preventive measures to protect the health of their workers. The CCOO (Working Council of Workers' Workers) has organized a street campaign to inform employees who are particularly exposed to the sun—such as those in construction, street cleaning, waste collection, and security—about their rights during these episodes, which are becoming more intense due to the climate emergency. The general secretary of the organization's Habitat Federation, Isabel Gutiérrez, has criticized the fact that heat protocols are "obsolete" and "absolutely all of them need to be renewed": "A protocol for the temperatures of 10 years ago is not the same as it is for today. We have more significant heat waves and much earlier, in May."

The problem, the union member insists, is that in sectors such as construction, there isn't even a protocol within the collective bargaining agreement that includes the specific measures to be followed in these cases. For example, modifying the workday to start more in the morning or delaying work to the afternoon to avoid the sunniest hours. "We have been asking the employers for this for many years, and obviously, they refuse. "They tell us that public authorities are demanding that work be stopped at certain times due to noise," says Gutiérrez. On the other hand, he criticizes the fact that work on the Camp Nou was allowed at night, despite the disturbance, in order to speed up construction. Specific protocols already exist in other autonomous communities such as Madrid and Andalusia, but not yet in Catalonia.

"Preventive measures need to be precise and mandatory, not recommendations; and we can't wait for extreme temperatures to hit to implement them," says the general secretary of Habitat at CCOO. The union also proposes replacing summer uniforms with breathable, loose-fitting clothing, and that companies provide workers with fresh water, protective equipment such as approved caps or sunglasses, and sunscreen. They also demand the provision of shaded rest areas with lower ambient temperatures, if possible in air-conditioned spaces.

Sectors with dangerous jobs such as construction have long demanded that these measures be applied. the reduction coefficients for accessing early retirement (without losing their pension), because they consider it a clear risk to force them to work at an advanced age. In this regard, the occupational health secretary of Habitat of the CCOO in Catalonia, Mònica Penas, has demanded that the reduction of the working day –pending approval in the Congress of Deputies- is "more present than ever" to avoid being "40 hours a week, Monday through Friday, exposed to the sun" until the age of 67 or beyond. Gutiérrez noted that, apart from heat exhaustion, employees who work outdoors can suffer from other pathologies such as skin cancer or cataracts in the long run, since sun exposure is one of the key factors in the development of this eye disease.

European Directive on Heat and Work

The European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) on Tuesday called on the European Commission to submit a proposal for a directive on maximum working temperatures, following the death of a person during the heat wave. from a cleaning services worker in Barcelona upon arriving home from work. According to the EU trade union organization, new regulations should include these limits, taking into account the specific working conditions of each sector, such as the nature and intensity of the work and indoor and outdoor activities. It also proposes that companies collaborate with unions to design and implement safer workplace policies through collective agreements.

"Another summer brings another tragedy. How many workers need to die during heat waves before common-sense rules are implemented? This is a problem affecting countries across Europe, so the responsibility to propose a solution naturally falls on the European Commission," said ETUC General Secretary Esther Lyn. According to data from the International Labour Organization, heat-related workplace deaths in the European Union have increased by 42% since 2000, the fastest increase of this phenomenon worldwide.

On the other hand, last week the Catalan Labor Inspectorate sent emails to more than 20,400 companies alerting them to the importance of preventing health risks that workers can suffer from heat exhaustion. These included 375 companies in the agriculture, livestock, forestry, and fishing sectors; 2,194 in construction; 17,501 in commerce; 83 in administrative activities; 174 in education; and 524 in artistic and recreational activities. In a statement, this "labor police" noted that it acts "immediately" to any complaint related to extreme temperatures in the workplace.